1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a printing apparatus which displays handling explanations of printing, such as selectable various functions and operation methods relating to printing, on a display screen and the like. This invention also relates to a method of displaying explanations of a printing apparatus, a program and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a word processor or a printing apparatus such as a tape printer, there are cases where questions about “handling” of the device arise, such as that a user does not know how to operate from a currently displayed screen, a tool bar and the like (hereinafter simply referred to as a “display screen”) or that the user does not know meanings of displayed various options. In order to respond to the above cases, a method of displaying a so-called help screen (as another window screen or the like) in a side-by-side relationship with an original screen, such as a text editing screen or the like, has been known. Specifically, on the help screen, explanations having the same contents as those of an “explanation manual” (manual) (hereinafter also referred to as “handling explanations”) are searched with keywords and the like and displayed by pressing a help key provided on a keyboard and the like, by clicking a help in a tool bar displayed on a screen, or the like. There has been also known a method of automatically displaying (automatic display of) a function explanation off an option on which a cursor or a mouse pointer is positioned (a pointed option) in a side-by-side relationship with the option in a part of an original screen. There has been made a device which enables a series of operations on a guidance screen serving also as a help screen not by using an original screen but by switching to the guidance screen and displaying options, a function explanation thereof, and operating explanations from that state in a side-by-side relationship in a display of the guidance screen.
However, in the above-described method of automatic display of the function explanation, the function explanation is automatically displayed in a single uniform way even when no explanation is necessary. Thus, the time spent in the automatic display is wasted. Overlapping of displayed function explanation on a display of an original operation screen makes operations difficult. In order to avoid the above problem, a display screen sufficiently large to display options and function explanation thereof in a side-by-side relationship is required. In the above-described method using the help screen, the guidance screen or the like, the original screen and the help screen are displayed in a side-by-side relationship in a displayed screen or the options, the function explanation, and the operating explanations are displayed in a side-by-side relationship on the guidance screen. Thus, a much larger display screen is required. Furthermore, the methods described above involve effort to search for target handling explanations, similar to the “handling manual”, such as searching with keywords and the like or performing a list display. Consequently, in some cases, trouble arises in work (operations) such as text editing.